MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 37 



The average load carried by merchandise wagons, exclusive of 

 coal, is about 10 cwt. paying weight. The load these wagons 

 ought to carry should be from 5 to 7 tons ; of paying load they 

 really carry but a twelfth of what they ought to do. If our goods 

 and mineral wagons were only a ton in weight, as they ought to 

 be, they would carry 3 tons of load, or 6 times the average load 

 now taken, and would reduce the dead weight from 4 to 1. A 

 railway company, that we forbear from naming, carries over its 

 line 126,000,000 tons per annum, out of which it takes payment 

 for only 15,000,000 tons of paying load. Fairlie's narrow-gauge 

 and 1-ton wagon system would reduce this gross tonnage one- 

 half, thus saving the company the cost of hauling 60,000,000 tons 

 per annum of dead weight. The experts who attended the 

 trials at Hatcham on the last two days were agreed as to the 

 entire absence of oscillation in the movements of the engine. 

 The ordinary locomotive, it is well known, increases its oscilla- 

 tion as it increases its speed, and ipso facto increases the power 

 and effect 'of the blows inflicted upon the rails. The oscillations 

 of the engines are communicated to the trains they draw, and 

 danger is thus increased. The Fairlie engine, it has been fully 

 demonstrated, runs more smoothly and faster without the pound- 

 ing of the rails caused by the engines of the ordinary type. 

 From all that we have seen of Mr. Fairlie's " Big" and " Little 

 Wonders " in his double bogie engines for any gauge, but prefer- 

 ably for a gauge of say 3 feet, we cannot doubt that the adoption 

 of his inventions would revolutionize railway working, and make 

 the difference, as regards railway property, that there is between 

 wasted money and lucrative investments. Ere long, notwith- 

 standing the vis inertias of the directorial mind, we have little 

 doubt that we will have English companies sharing with Russian, 

 Peruvian, and Welsh mine masters, in the benefits that Mr. 

 Fairlie and his double bogie system are ready to confer upon 

 them. An engine on the Fairlie principle has recently been com- 

 pleted in the United States, adapted to the roads of that country. 

 It is thus described by the "Springfield Republican:" "The 

 memory of that mythical divinity, the two-faced god, Janus, is 

 perpetuated in a double headed locomotive, built by Mason, of 

 Taunton, after a style invented by Robert Fairlie of England. 

 This ponderous and unique machine, which is to become the 

 property of the Boston and Albany Railroad, drew hither from 

 Worcester the other day 40 freight cars, half of which were 

 loaded. It would have drawn more had not the pump given 

 out, a defect easily remedied and by no means vital. It will 

 speedily be repaired, and the machine sent on a trial-trip up the 

 hills to Pittsfield immediately. This dual engine has 1 boiler 

 with 2 heads, and at each end rests on 6 drive-wheels. The cab 

 rests on the boiler, over the centre, where a lever lets on the 

 steam. The water-tanks and bunkers for coal are above the 

 boilers on each side of the cab. In going in one direction one- 

 halt' of the locomotive is going ahead and the other backing, and 

 the latter goes ahead when the steam is reversed, and the other 

 half backs. Thus the necessity of turn-tables is avoided, and it is 



